Reasons to Say Yes
by silversurf4
Summary: This is completely AU. Post S2 and supposes an established Crews / Reese relationship. It's been taking up space on my hard drive far too long. Time to release it into the wild.
1. Chapter 1

**Reasons to Say Yes**

 **CHAPTER ONE**

"Dani," Tidwell said clearing his throat and tugging on his collar.

She looked up intrigued. He never called her Dani anymore – now that they weren't together anymore. He thought she'd didn't like it, but in truth she didn't really care, but it was unusual and that garnered her attention. Then she noticed he looked nervous and concluded Crew had done something (again). He was supposed to be out helping with a robbery canvass while she finished up an arrest report.

Charlie hated paperwork, so she'd let him go "play." The moment the hint of her a smile of acquiescence crossed her face he'd sprung from his desk with far more enthusiasm than canvasses merited and bounced toward the stairs. His over his shoulder grin as she acerbically commented she didn't need his help flitted through her memory in the millisecond before she realized Tidwell was serious.

"What?" she asked flatly. Fear was tearing at the edges of her stable world. Charlie winked at her as he left promising he'd bring her a triple mocha coffee when he came back. But he wasn't back….. "What's happened?"

"I've got some bad news," he gulped loudly. "I think you should…well you are sitting, but…" he stammered as she glared at him. He walked to her side and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked down at the offending member and his brown-sleeved limb connecting her to him and questioned him with her gaze.

"It's Crews," he sounded somber.

"What's he done?" she said still unsure there was anything to worry about. It was not uncommon for Charlie to merit close attention from their boss – negative attention and as his senior partner it meant she got to deal with his stunts and questionable choices.

"Dani," Tidwell drew her name out until she looked him in the eye, "he's been shot."

It was good she was sitting down, because her world tilted and swam. She felt dizzy and yet nothing had moved. She couldn't breath and her boss had to remind her to. When the words left his mouth, all she could remember was Charlie saying the same thing, "breathe." That was his word to her during the exchange in the orange grove all those many months ago.

She grimaced and looked at Tidwell as if he'd slapped her. She still couldn't manage to verbalize anything, but Tidwell explained for her benefit. "He's at Cedars Sinai and I'm gonna take you there now," he coached. She nodded and tears welled, but Dani Reese didn't cry – especially not at work. People were watching, people she worked with and she'd never show weakness to them.

But Tidwell knew her, beyond work – he used to know her quite well, better than most, better than he should have. He still cared deeply for the young woman, but he knew her heart was irrevocably and irretrievably lost to her pale partner. He got her to her feet and steered her by the elbow toward the elevator, knowing they were being watched. Once the doors slid closed, he pulled her into a tight hug and she let him hold her while she collected herself. For just a few seconds she leaned on and relied on him like she used to – back when she was his. He still missed those days. "I'm still here for you," he said softly and squeezed her shoulder. He was comforting and warm, but he wasn't Charlie.

She wanted Crews and she wanted him in a way she couldn't express, but that made her feel guilty for taking refuge in Tidwell's arms. She pushed away and mumbled a "thanks," but distanced herself from her Captain. He felt her wall herself away from him. She shook him off and squared her shoulders, "I'm good. I just need to see my partner," she stared straight ahead. She hadn't even asked how it happened, who shot him or why. It was the reaction of a woman, not a Detective.

Tidwell told her the bare facts on the way because it gave him something to say. "It was a kid, Crews never saw it coming. Little punk gangbanger wannabe... A marked unit bagged him before he got two blocks. The kid was still holding the gun in his hand," he offered. He talked to thin air, because Dani Reese was somewhere else entirely.

She sat dully in the passenger seat as his words bounced off her like raindrops. She wasn't worried about a crime or evidence, where the crime scene was or where the suspect was. She worried about her mate, her lover, maybe someday the man who would be something far more dear – he was not her preeminent concern – he was her only concern.

When they arrived at the Emergency Room and she walked in ahead of him, arms wrapped around her like she was cold in the hot humid LA sunshine. He stepped in front of her and took charge, as was his duty. He introduced himself and asked for the tall red haired Detective by name. They pointed him to the ICU, explaining Crews had come through a quick surgical procedure, but was still in a medically induced coma.

The injury was to his head and they were keeping him sedated to reduce brain swelling the nurse shared quietly. Dani commented sarcastically, under her breath, "they shot him in the head? He'll be okay, Crews has a very hard head." It was gallows humor, a cop tradition for deflecting the pain of loss or fear. Tidwell saw it for what it was and forced a wane smile.

They moved silently to another bank of elevators and when the doors opened again the chaotic, hectic nature of the ER gave way to the morgue like stillness of the floor housing the ICU ward. There was a phone on the wall to contact the nurse's station. He picked it up and asked about Crews. There was a terse two-way conversation in which he said "no," a lot and then he hung the phone up.

Stress caused his shoulders to bunch as he tried to think of a way that he could tell Dani what the nurse said - that would not result in her coming completely unglued. He concluded there wasn't one. She was still mute and staring at the floor. She was in shock he realized, it was why she appeared cold – she was cold.

"Dani," he continued his familiarity, talking to her as a friend, not her boss – not even her former lover. "Only family is allowed in the ICU," he weakly informed her.

She looked up and the look on her face was a mixture of wonder, anger, pain - it quickly congealed into anguish. She bit her lip as it trembled.

"Do you know how to reach his father?" Tidwell asked gently.

She fished her cell from her pocket and handed it to him before she sat down, placing her head in her hands. He scrolled through the numbers and found Charles Crews Senior, listed in her address book. It would stand to reason she'd have it. He fingered the number but didn't make the call, instead looking to her for confirmation.

"He won't want to see him," she spoke for the first time. It sounded as though she'd suffered a blow to her head instead of her partner. She sounded like she was in space, her movements were wooden, affect stolid and her shock manifested visibly in everything she didn't do. She was normally a mercurial woman with a short fuse, but right now she wasn't Dani Reese. She troubled him more than her partner who was flat on his back in a coma.

Someone with training and expertise was caring for Crews – all she had was him. He felt woefully inadequate. "Do you think I should call him?" he inquired.

"No," she said dully. "Charlie hates his father. He won't want him here," she continued talking at him – not to him. "I should be in there, if only I hadn't been so…" she stopped, dropped her head and actually began to cry.

He'd never seen her cry and had no idea what to do. Her shoulders shook, and he could hear her sniffle, but she made no outcry. He walked to her side and sunk to the couch beside her. He draped an arm over her and pulled her against his side, "let it out." For a few moments, she let him hold her stiffly against his side, but she pulled away as if taking comfort from him was betraying her partner.

"Dani, I wanna be here for you. You need a friend right now."

This seemed to snap her out of her dreamlike state, "No, I need my partner and he needs me. You wanna do something for me? Get me in there," she pointed at the ICU door.

"I can't…they said only family," he defended against her sudden anger.

"He is my family," she pled with him angrily. There were hot tears on her face and heartbreak in her voice. For her, he tried again, this time going to the door and waving until a nurse came to the door and spoke in hushed tones with him. He showed his badge and the nurse looked left and right as if she were going to be caught doing something illegal. She motioned for him to wait and the door closed again.

He returned to the small waiting room where Dani was perched on an orange vinyl couch waiting. She looked up at him with hope and he simply shrugged, as the door opened with a whoosh as a power-assisted lever activated from the inside propelled it wide. The nurse came out carrying a manila envelope.

"You're his boss?" she confirmed. Tidwell nodded. "He had several very expensive items on his person the hospital would rather not be responsible for…."

Tidwell interrupted, "I thought you were going to help me get her in to see him."

"You help me," she negotiated dryly, "…and I'll help you."

Tidwell pursed his lips, sighed heavily and ran his hand through his thick mop of hair, "Okay, yeah sure," he acquiesced, "I'll sign for his stuff."

The woman dumped the contents onto a squat table in the waiting room. Charlie's Patek Philippe watch, his wallet containing a wad of hundred dollar bills and his cell phone and other items tumbled onto the table. The watch made a dull thud as it struck the table and Dani looked up. She fixed her eyes on a blue velvet box and she bolted from the room.

She hit the bathroom door across the hallway like a battering ram and the stone silence in the hallway made it very easy to hear her empty the contents of her stomach into the toilet.

Tidwell and the nurse exchanged pained looks. "What's in the box?" he asked.

"A very big diamond," the nurse explained. "I'm guessing for her."


	2. Chapter 2

**Reasons to Say Yes**

 **CHAPTER TWO**

Tidwell continued to grouse to the nurse who was getting annoyed with him, "She's been in there a long time. Are you sure she's okay?"

"She's fine," the blonde said patiently.

"Maybe I should check on her," he said a few moments.

"Is she your girlfriend?" the blonde asked perturbed at his disinterest, "or his?"

"Uh….his, but it's complicated," Tidwell shyly admitted. Then it suddenly dawned on him why the woman was asking. She was interested in him – he could be such a dolt sometimes. "Hey, but I'm just concerned about her cause she's my buddy's girl," he stammered. This made the nurse smile.

Dani exited the bathroom about ten minutes later. It was apparent she'd washed up and composed herself. Tidwell and the nurse were quietly chatting in the waiting room. She watched the nurse touch him and point to her.

Dani noticed the gesture because of the intimacy; women touch men who interest them. It was a clinical observation; nothing in the gesture or the interest sparked even a scintilla of envy from her. She realized he was moving on and somewhere in the back of her mind she was happy for him. She walked straight up to them, both rose awkwardly to greet her.

"I know it's not normal, that I'm not family, but could I just…"

"Of course," the blonde took her by the shoulder and waved a key card in front of the doorway that whooshed open again. "Now, he's heavily sedated and on a ventilator. His head is wrapped up because of the injury. Don't be surprised if you don't recognize him," she coached quietly.

They turned the corner and Dani saw her partner lying under a white sheet in a bed with stainless steel rails. Strapped to his face was an opaque tube attached to the ventilator that rhythmically breathed for him. His face was covered almost entirely with a bandage that covered one eye, his cheek and left ear, but she knew him.

She'd know him anywhere. As much as she grimaced at his condition, she smiled at the things she recognized. His chapped bottom lip that always wore a deep furrow in the center, the haze of reddish hair above his ear and the smattering of freckles on his fair skin. "Charlie," she breathed.

"It's okay, honey," the nurse squeezed her hand, "you can touch him. Talk to him – we find that patients respond to things the doctors say they can't possibly hear or feel. They can sense when someone who loves them is here – all the nurses see it."

Dani approached her partner and reached for his hand. It was limp and cold. She clasped it between her two small hands, pressed it to her cheek and for the first time in a long time mumbled the words of a long forgotten prayer locked deep inside her. The nurse stepped away to give them some privacy.

Dani opened her eyes and watched the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest, propelled by the machine making steady noise beside him. Charlie would have commented that the measured pace was soothing, but she didn't find it that way. He seemed lifeless – he who always seemed so full of life and light.

"I know you can hear me," she said softly, "and I want you to know that I'm not mad. That's a lie," she corrected, "I am mad, but not at you." She almost laughed at her own lunacy. Charlie would seriously smirk at her if he were awake right now. She wished he was because convention be damned she'd climbed into that bed and kiss him senseless.

"I'm mad at myself for not going with you…and for insisting that accepting that ring would split us up," she bit back tears. The pumping of the ventilator fill the silence and it annoyed her. "We got split up anyway. I don't want it to be like this. If I have to work with someone else; I want you to come home to," she confessed.

"I know what you want is for us to be together and that's what I want too. So I need you to wake up and get better. When you do, I'll marry you. If that's still what you want. Just please wake up," she begged her partner. The tears she'd banished threatened a comeback, "Charlie…..please…"

The nurse returned, "I'm sorry, Miss – but the doctors are making rounds. You're going to have to go. We'll take good care of him. He's young and strong. You have to believe he'll recover and you have to be strong for him," she pronounced words she probably said often, but her compassion was genuine.

Dani nodded and left. Tidwell was leaning on the wall outside waiting for her.

"Let's go," she said. "It's useless to stay here," she said flatly.

"Where do you want me to take you?" he asked.

"Home," she replied. She meant Crews' house on the high hill where she spent most nights now. "Crews' house," she qualified.

Tidwell waited until they were in the car, before turning to face her with the envelope. "I think you should keep these things for him," he offered her the envelope. She took it and he then went a step further, "and I think you should wear the ring. He bought it for you, even if he never got a chance to give it to you…"

She stared straight through the windshield as she interrupted him, "he did." Tears streamed down her face, "he asked me to marry him. If I'd have said yes I could be there with him. I'm such a fool," she admitted.

"Hey," Tidwell squeezed her shoulder, "He's gonna get better. Crews is gonna get better, Dani. He was hit in the head and no one has a harder head than your partner," his levity designed to take some of the pain from the air surrounding her.

She had to smile, "that's true." She held the envelope to her chest as he drove her home. When they arrived at the mansion, she said nothing, simply climbing from the car and disappearing into the house.

But Ted came out and asked the obvious, "What's wrong? Where's Charlie? Why's Dani crying? Did something happen?" He was obviously distressed for his friend and the questions came rapid fire with barely a breath between them.

Tidwell explained what had happened to the grey haired man and wrung from him a promise to look after Dani before leaving to return to work. He had an officer involved shooting inquiry to manage. The Chief and the Mayor were wearing out his cell phone; each had gone to voice mail five or six times. There would be hell to pay when he returned those calls, but he had to see to his people first. He hoped they understood this. His heart was with the young woman in the house, but hers was still in the ICU with her partner, so he went where he could do some good – back to work.

When he reached in his pocket to retrieve his keys – he noticed a piece of paper there. He drew it out and realized it was the blonde nurse's phone number and her name – Judy. Things were looking up for him, time to move on – Dani Reese had. He was going to call the nurse, but first he had to call the Mayor.


	3. Chapter 3

**Reasons to Say Yes**

 **CHAPTER THREE**

Ted entered the house and listened intently. He wondered if she'd talk to him at all, but for Charlie's sake he had to try. He crept through the house quietly and found her sitting alone at the dining room table.

On the table in front of her sat a blue velvet box that she was staring at. She was hunched over and looked cold. He cleared his throat, gathering the nerve to speak to her when she said simply, "you heard?"

"Yeah," he answered cautiously. "Are you alright?"

"Am I…" she began and then turned to look at her partner's best friend, "am I alright?"

"I can't help Charlie. He needs doctors and Cedars has the best. But I can help you…it's what he'd want," he explained.

"How can you help me?" she wondered looking at him.

Ted had to consider her question – it was a good one. Then he realized the crux of the matter was sitting on the table in front of her. "Wanna tell me about the box?"

She shrugged. So he pressed, "what's in the box Dani?"

"A ring," she admitted.

"An engagement ring?" he ventured.

She nodded and then "yep" popped from her lips.

"Did he get to ask you? Or did you find it when…" he trailed off.

"He asked," She said sounding small and sad, "I said no."

"Why?" he couldn't help the incredulity that crept into his voice. He knew Charlie adored her and was sure she loved him back. "I know you love him," Ted spilled the words like they were precious secrets.

She nodded sighing, "because…" She looked up at the ceiling, "because I'm a stupid fucking idiot."

"Surely there must be more to it than that," he probed.

"And you expect me to tell you?" she sounded annoyed bordering on angry.

"You have to tell someone and he's not here, so I think I'm your only option," he painted a pretty clear picture of their small circle of friends.

She sighed and pivoted back to the table. She grasped the box with both hands and snapped it open. Ted stepped closer to get a good look. It was a big stone bordering on a full karat maybe more – a diamond solitaire – simple, yet elegant.

"It's pretty," Ted offered.

"It's pretty big," she replied.

"Charlie likes to go big with gifts. He bought his ex-wife a horse," Ted noted.

"He did that? I thought he was joking," she continued to look at the rock.

"Change your mind?"

"I said no because I didn't want them to split us up," she explained. "Stupid reasoning, I was scared. Marriage is forever. What if I can't do forever?"

"How about now? Do you want to be with him now?"

She nodded.

"Then you should marry him now. The future isn't set; it can change. You should be happy with him now and let the future happen when it happens," Ted offered.

"That's something Charlie would say," she noted.

"Is it?"

Dani laughed at the unintentionally Zen nature of their conversation.

"Turns out you can help me," she said. "I think I'm going to marry your best friend, when he wakes up," she smiled softly and took the ring out and slipped it on her finger. "It fits," she noted.

"Oh, he does his research," Ted bragged. "Except when it comes to cars. Those he's an impulse buyer on," he noted chuckling. "First the Bentley; then the Grand National; the Maserati and now we're back to looking again."

She turned to face him, "Why? What's wrong with the Maserati?"

"Nothing," Ted said flatly. She stared and he explained. "He just said it was a single man's car. He wanted something more family oriented. He was looking at SUVs. I think I knew he wanted to settle down. Charlie's a simple guy; he's a family man. That's all he's ever been."

"That's what scares me," she admitted. "What if I can't do family?"

"Does it make a difference what you call it?" he argued. "You live together, you work together, you love him, right?" She nodded. "Well, in my book - you are family."

"Not in the ICU's book," she said angrily. "They want me to call his father," she pouted, "and I know he doesn't want that."

"Wait," Ted grabbed her shoulder and looked off into the kitchen. "I have an idea."


	4. Chapter 4

**Reasons to Say Yes**

 **CHAPTER FOUR**

She wandered upstairs to the bedroom they shared. It felt eerie and strange to be there alone. There were signs of him everywhere. His shoes and one sock stuck out from under the edge of the duvet. His t-shirt hung over the corner of the headboard and a pair of striped blue cotton boxers lay on the floor of the bathroom.

She was exhausted, but his razor and toothbrush mocked her as she dully brushed her teeth. She was at the edge of tears again. She stripped to her panties, pulled on his discarded t-shirt and climbed into their bed on his side.

"God damn you, Charlie," she swore softly. "Nothing scares me. Why am I only ever scared when you get hurt? Can't you just not get hurt? I swear you are going to be relegated to paperwork as soon as you get better…. paperwork until I get tired. Just get better…" her rants devolved to a choked sob. She let the tears come. She turned her head into his pillow and inhaled the scent of him.

* * *

She fell asleep, but her dreams were troubled. She was holding Charlie under the water in the pool. His eyes were the small color as the pool water. He smiled at her. This only served to make her angrier. She turned to leave the pool, but found her feet were encased in blocks of concrete. As Charlie rose, so did the water. She soon found herself choking on the blue water; she pled for help, but Crews just smiled.

"Be like water," he said calmly. She stared at him and continued to choke.

Charlie calmly spoke to her, "Empty your mind, be formless; shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water…."

She looked down and two large diamond rings held her feet fast. She woke gasping for air. It didn't take a psychologist to figure that dream out. The idea of marriage terrified her. She loved him, but she definitely didn't love the idea of drowning. _Would she lose who she was with him? Who was she without Crews?_

* * *

The following morning, they arrived at the hospital and Ted donned his horned rimmed glasses. Dani was tempted to laugh, but he was doing her a favor.

"Hey," he joked, "being this uptight and having all this grey hair has to be good for something."

"You really think they'll believe you're his father?" she seemed skeptical, but willing to try.

"Sure, wouldn't you?"

"Uh – no…" she told him honestly.

"Well, you're smarter than most people," he offered.

"You mean more skeptical," she replied.

"Isn't it the same thing?" Ted wondered as her took her arm and began their charade.

The blonde night nurse was gone. Ted called on the waiting room phone and announced Charles Crews Senior was there to see his son. The door opened and he strode in with Dani on his arm.

"Where is he?" Ted demanded in an amazing display of confidence Dani didn't know he had.

"Sir, only family is allowed in the ICU," the young nurse cautioned.

They'd rehearsed the story that Dani was his daughter, Charlie's sister, but Ted changed tactics at the last minute.

"This is my son's fiancée – she is family," technically he wasn't even lying about that part. Charlie had asked her to marry him and she'd agreed to – eventually. The young girl nodded, accepting the story and swept back the curtain.

They'd taken him off the ventilator and he was breathing on his own. He still looked pale enough that Ted froze in the opening to the room. The state of his vibrant friend's health shocked him. But Dani didn't miss a beat; she dropped his arm and kept moving to her partner's side. She took his hand and it was still limp and cold, but she held it anyway. She leaned close and kissed his bottom lip tenderly. It was still warm, but dry.

"Hey," she spoke softly to him, words only meant for his ears, but the room was quiet and it was hard to not to overhear her endearments. "I know you want to sleep all day, but we got things to do…. so wake up sleepyhead," she urged.

"I know you can hear me Charlie," she talked and smoothed his sideburn with her thumb. "Don't think for a second, this is gonna get you out of the promises you made me mister," she tried hard to keep it positive.

"I'm gonna get some coffee," Ted stammered as he whirled and left. The young nurse was nearby. "Can you get her a chair?" he asked.

The girl nodded and moved to honor his request. It stunned him to see Charlie so weak and vulnerable. Ted always thought of Charlie as an avenging angel; he'd always been strong and virtually indestructible, so it rocked Ted to see his friend flat on his back.

One of the older nurses approached him; she'd obviously dealt with a lot go people in crisis. "Mr. Crews?" She had to say it twice before Ted realized she was talking to him. "He's going to be okay," she glanced back at Dani settling in beside him. "I see lot of people come through here – he's a fighter."

"You know he really is…" Ted marveled. "He's the toughest man I know."

She smiled. "He's got a lot to live for, a nice young bride and a concerned family," she listed his life in a snapshot.

"A Maserati in the garage, an orange grove, a solar farm," Ted chuckled. The nurse looked perplexed. "He's got a lot of strange interests," Ted explained.

"I thought he was a policeman," she replied.

"He is. He's a Detective, but that's not all that he is," Ted qualified. The nurse looked suitably impressed. "Can I buy you a cup of coffee?" She nodded and then pointed at her watch and motioned to the nurse seated behind the counter she was taking her break.

"I'd like that," she smiled.

When Ted returned Dani was still talking to Charlie, he watched from a distance and realized this was what love looked like. Someone like Dani who noticeably didn't talk; talking – just to give her partner something to hold onto.

The day passed quietly. Machine beeped and whirred around her like the tides. An endless sea of scrubs flowed in and out of the room. Dani was the ocean. Her faith in Charlie was as endless and vast as the limitless horizon.

As the sun set, Ted watched Dani's strength flag. He took his cue to do what Charlie would want and he gently coaxed her into leaving, with a little help from the nurse who lied about visiting hours. All the way home he spoke of nothing so she wouldn't have to. He filled in the nothing around them so that she could rest; she was asleep as they pulled into the driveway.

* * *

Tidwell never heard her approach. It was as if she'd simply materialized in his doorway.

"I wanna see him," she demanded. He didn't need to ask who she meant. She was talking about the kid who shot Crews.

"Absolutely not," he said firmly. The anger on her face and the hardness of her eyes told him two things: it was the right decision and she wasn't going to give up.

"Dani…" he argued against the look she gave him. It was pure cold steel.

"You will let me question him," she foretold. "Because he hasn't told you shit and you know I can make him talk," she promised. "I need to know why….why Crews."

"Maybe there is no why," Tidwell offered meekly.

"No," she pointed her finger in his face.

"It could be just a gang initiation thing…" he offered.

"It could be, but it isn't," she countered strongly.

"How do you know?"

"Because….everything is connected," she said and the end of her statement was quiet. Tidwell recognized the statement as one Crews often employed.

"You're beginning to sound like him," he observed, "think like him."

"So…." She remarked. "You bring him up to Interview Three. I'll be there as soon and I lock up my weapon." Her absolute confidence in the fact that she'd win the argument reminded him of why he loved her. When he didn't answer, lost in the memory of their time together, she turned and gave him a glare.

"Yeah….okay," he acquiesced like they both knew he would the moment she appeared in the doorway. He couldn't say no to her.

"Dani?" he called her back. Her face relaxed and he could see the worry, the lack of sleep showed. "How's Crews?"

"The same," she sounded lost and small.

"He'll wake up," Tidwell offered hope. "He has to…."

"Why's that?" she sounded forlorn.

"You need him to," he observed. She turned on her heel and left without answering his comment. She didn't want him to see the tears.


	5. Chapter 5

**Reasons to Say Yes**

 **CHAPTER FIVE**

She stared at the shooter through the one-way mirror. Donte Washington lived on the edge of a LA neighborhood that was the boundary between Crip territory and the barrio; tough place to be a punk. He was small and slight. The booking jacket informed her he was fifteen, but he looked twelve. His eyebrow was scarred from fighting – it was an old scar. There were more. Like Crews, he was a fighter. She breathed in and out, calmed herself and before reaching for the doorknob.

He looked up and saw not another suit. It was an attractive five-foot tall, curvy woman in jeans and a white shirt. She wore a well-worn maroon leather jacket and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She was pretty in an exotic way. This wasn't so bad, he thought. He was wrong. So very wrong….

"Donte Washington," she began. "You've been advised on your rights?"

"Yeah, baby…." Donte smiled and gold front tooth showed. "I'm your man."

Her eyes narrowed. "You don't talk that way to me," she warned.

"Come' on pretty thang…" he was cocksure and arrogant. "You know you want a piece of me. What are you baby? You ain't white. You ain't black. You some foreign piece of ass? I never had a foreign girl, you'd be my first."

Dani traveled so fast it shocked him. She kicked the chair from under him. The chain attaching his wrists to the loop under the table stretched tight snapping his wrist sharply.

"I am a LAPD Detective," she barked, "and I am not impressed by your crap."

"Fuck woman," he complained standing up. "That shit hurt."

"You wanna walk out of this room," she glowered "you better learn a little respect."

Even her threats didn't phase this hardened young criminal. "Shit, baby. I'll give you what you want. Just take these cuffs off and I'll….give you…what… you need. Uh!" Each couple of words was punctuated with a thrust of his hips against the table, simulating sex.

She rolled her eyes. "Give it a rest. You're a little boy."

"I'm man enough to kill a cop," he bragged.

She laughed for effect. "You didn't kill him. He's taking a few days off, resting by the pool on the taxpayer's dime. You dry fired big boy. You blew your wad before the game even got started," she changed tactics, climbing into the gutter with him. If he wanted to talk trash, she could talk trash.

"Bullshit, bitch! I shot that white cop in the head. I saw him fall," he was like a seven year old arguing with his sister.

"Why him? Hmmm…." she taunted. "Couldn't get it up enough to go after someone from your own neighborhood? Too chicken shit to go after a uniform?"

"He's dead," Donte asserted strongly, sticking his chin out.

"He's not," she argued.

"Then how come he ain't here?" Donte spit at her through clench teeth.

"Like I said," she repeated calmly, "he's resting comfortably. I think he mentioned something about a massage and pina coladas by the pool. I think I'll join him after I put you back in your little hole."

"I ain't sweating jail, honey." He grinned at her. "Cop killers is royalty in prison. Sides' I'm 15, ain't nobody gonna send a kid to prison. I'll get juvy. Piece a cake. Piece a fuckin' cake, shorty."

"Oh," she looked down at his jacket, frowned and then remarked. "Gosh, looks like they missed something on your record. She took a pencil out from behind her ear and began erasing charges. Donte didn't know charges were all in the computer.

"Hmmm," she scribbled down a few words. "Let's see…child molestation. Yeah, that sounds bout right for you."

Donte paled. Everyone on the streets knew that child molesters were the lowest rung in the prison caste system. They seldom survived general population and if they did – it wasn't pleasant.

"Sweet little boy like you," she smiled. "You're gonna make some 300 pound Aryan Nation guy a nice girlfriend." She enjoyed the look of terror that flitted across his face.

"You….you can't," he stammered.

"No? But I just did," she clarified.

Then Donte wised up. "Don't y'all got all that shit in computers now? Oh yeah….you funning with me. Don't you worry sweety. I can still give you what you want. You know you want some of this," he grabbed his crotch with one hand.

She exhaled. "Here's the thing," she switched tactics. "The man you shot? His name is Charlie Crews. He spent twelve years in prison, federal prison, up in Crescent City – Pelican Bay. Maybe you've heard of it?"

"He was a cop," Donte said dully.

"No one is just one thing," she said softly. They were Crews' words. "Yeah, he was a cop, but then he did some murders. Then he was a con, but they screwed up the evidence and he got out. But he has quite a few friends on the inside, so when you go down….and you will go down…..you can be badass or someone's bitch. It all depends on you."

"What you wanna know bitch?" Donte was less cocky now. She had his attention.

"Why him? Who told you to shoot him?"

"Bitch," he spit the words at her. "He white. He a cop. No one told me shit."

"You didn't know who he was?" she confirmed.

"I still don't," he confirmed.

She rose to leave.

"Wait," he sounded stressed. "You gonna fix that jacket right?"

"Yeah," she threw the folder in the trash. "All that shit's in the computer. What is this 1999?"

Donte groaned. "I just got played. Girl… you fine….you so fine." He was still laughing when she closed the door and left him.

* * *

The nurse told him they'd cut back his meds in the afternoon and the doctor seemed encouraged. Ted thought about asking Dani to leave but couldn't bring himself to do it. Then she moved suddenly and commanded, "do it again, Charlie," and smiled as his fingers curled around hers. "He's awake," she mumbled with joy as he stepped into the room. "Charlie can you hear me?"

His lips moved and she leaned close as he tried to say something, she wet his lips with an ice cube and he finally got the words out, "sorry I forgot… your coffee." Even injured, Crews was still Crews.

"You scared the shit out of me, Charlie," she admitted.

"Hey, buddy," Ted said louder than necessary from the doorway, not wanting to intrude.

Crews blinked his one exposed eye open and continued gripping Dani's hand he raised it to his lips. He paused and examined the ring. "Was I out long enough for you to get engaged to some other fella?" he joked with his partner.

"No," she said sheepishly.

"That the ring I bought you?" he inquired.

"Yes," she seemed embarrassed.

"So….we're gonna get married," he smiled and sighed. Ted beamed at the happy couple. The nurse entered and announced the doctor needed to check his wound and they'd need to leave for awhile.

"We're gonna get married Ted," Charlie repeated excitedly.

"Who's Ted?" Ted's coffee companion asked. "I thought you were his father," she narrowed her eyes at his friend.

"Do I really look old enough to be his father?" He smiled.

"But she really is his fiancée," Ted defended. "That part was true," he smiled hoping she wouldn't hate him. He'd kinda felt a spark with the woman and wanted to pursue it after this was over. He smiled warmly and explained, "You wouldn't hold it against a guy for helping two kids in love would you?"

She made him wait for it but there was a smile at the end as she ushered them out.

Dani's hands were clasped together in front of her, her eyes were closed and for all appearances she looked as if she were praying. When she opened her eyes, she grinned and hugged him, "he's going to be okay, Ted." She was beside herself with joy.

"Yeah," he laughed, "until the next time," he sounded chagrined. "Did I ever tell you how many times Charlie was in the infirmary in Crescent City?" She shook her head no and he regaled her of tales of Charlie's many brushes with death and serious injury inside the joint all the way home.


	6. Chapter 6

**Reasons to Say Yes**

 **CHAPTER SIX**

They released him nine days later, because he was really was "showing remarkable progress" like the doctor's wrote on his discharge papers, but primarily because he was driving the hospital staff crazy. The nurse told Dani that she now knew more about the Buddha than she did about her ex-husband. Dani nodded knowing the feeling and promised he'd do nothing more strenuous than climb stairs.

"Can I drive?" he asked when they rolled him out in the wheel chair.

"Now I know you suffered a blow to the head," she deadpanned at her partner, "get in the car Crews."

"I don't know why if it's my car – you always get to drive," he protested.

"Because you've suffered one near death experience this month and that's the limit," she teased. She was in an exceptional mood and he was too. "Besides, you can only see out of one eye and I'm pretty sure it's against California Penal Traffic Enforcement Code to drive like that," she joked putting the car in gear.

"The nurses said I looked like a pirate," he volunteered. Dani had no response for this. "Funny thing is… I never wanted to be a pirate," he commented to the world at large. He reached for her hand and found it in his almost immediately making him smile.

"Does the light hurt your eyes?" she questioned.

"What? Uh…no. I like it," he smiled and stared out the windshield at the world beyond. "When we get home can you take this get up off me so I can see?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," she seemed skeptical. "Why can't you just leave it? I'm really not qualified to…. We'll see," she revised when he began to pout.

"I can't do anything except look for awhile and I want to look at you with both eyes," he confessed softly.

"Okay," she said shakily as she began to unwrap the bandaging. She got down to the point when his face was exposed. "Jesus Charlie," she couldn't help her exclamation.

"Bad?"

"You've got a black eye," she told him whistling her. "It's a helluva shiner," she remarked, "looks like you took a beat down. No…worse than that."

"Increased intracranial pressure caused a bleed into the eye socket," he explained clinically. "Nobody hit me honey," he covered her shaking hand.

"Yeah, except with a bullet," she remarked dryly. There was another raw red scar to add to his long list of injuries, more blue-black stitches pulling at his fair skin and a seriously blackened eye socket, but the rest of him was sound. She put a clean bandage over the wound and gently rewound the bandage so that it left his eye unobstructed. "Better?" she asked.

He didn't answer until her drew her around in front of her and looked up at her face, then he nodded. "Perfect," he sounded close to tears himself. "C'mere," he pulling her close. She stepped into his embrace and they both held very still listening to the other breath while their emotions balanced. She pressed her lips to his forehead and whispered, "I don't like worrying about you Charlie." His chuckle rumbled deep in his chest.

"That's my girl," he tenderly kissed her. He wanted to pull her into a more amorous embrace, but she resisted.

"The doctor said to take it easy. We're not supposed to get your blood pressure up," she chided.

"Too late," he joked, "that man has no idea what you do to me just by walking in a room," he persisted in continued kissing her.

She gave in sliding her hands along his sharp jaw line, to hold his fair freckled face in her small hands. She drew back and gave him the words that had become their thing – "I love you Charlie Crews." It was simple, sweet and unsolicited.

* * *

A week later she took him to the beach at sunset so they could walk. He was supposed to exercise and was slowly get used to being active again, but she liked sunsets at the beach and hadn't see one in awhile. Charlie was very fit, recovering far quicker than the doctor's expected, so it didn't surprise her when he seized her hand and walked toward the surf.

"I'm not going swimming with you," she warned. "No," she revised, "you aren't swimming either. I don't know what that water will do to your wound," she chastised him.

He simply responded, "doesn't mean we can get our feet wet," with mirth in his eyes.

She let him pull her to the water's edge and they sat together rolling up their pant legs and then linked hands and held their shoes in the other.

"I wanna ask you something," she opened the conversation as they meandered up the emptying beach, which was new. She almost never initiated personal conversations, but they were treading new ground together every day.

"Is it my favorite color?" He tried to joke with her.

"No," she snorted a short courteous but forced laugh. "I'm serious," she ventured a sidelong glance at him.

He was surprised and intrigued – his face showed it. "Okay," he drew out the word.

"I'm so fucked up Charlie, so royally broken and scarred. I guess I wanna know of all the people you could choose, why me," she was more emotional than she wanted to be. "Can you tell me why you love…me," she demanded.

His initial tactic was to brush off her question. It was a hard one. "There is no why, I just do," he said smiling.

Her look told him that would not suffice, "I don't understand it." She wanted a real answer – a real explanation of something he barely understood himself, "and I want to."

"So you can believe me?"

She nodded solemnly. He grimaced, not entirely sure he could explain it or convince her, but he tried anyway.

"First of all you don't understand love, you just feel it," he explained. "It just is – it's Zen in that way. Perfect, unspoiled, unpredictable and you can't bend it to your will. You love who you love and that's it."

"But…." she argued.

"Shhh," he chastised. "I'm not finished."

She frowned furiously but fell silent. He continued.

"The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break - it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of those things you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry," he recited.

"More Zen?"

"No," he laughed. "Hemingway from A Farewell to Arms, written in 1929. I did read other stuff besides Zen in prison, you know?"

"I don't know what that's supposed to mean," she admitted her ignorance, another new path in their travels together.

"It means that you – like I – were broken by life. But we are both strong at those broken places. Call it calluses, scar tissue, whatever….. It doesn't means we won't be broken again - but not there and not in that same way. Neither of us are 'very good or very gentle' and only sometimes are we brave," he waggled his eyebrows at her trying to coax a smile.

"Therefore life will not kill us in any special hurry. We have time to heal, to learn, to live and I want to do all those things…and I want to do them with you."

She was unusually quiet and thoughtful. Dani was often quiet and she always thought, but not like what he could tell she was doing now. She was weighing his words and deciding if she believed them – if she could believe them.

"I love you for your scars, crashes and bad endings, not in spite of them. Will I ever not be an ex-con? Will you ever not be recovering alcoholic? No – but that's not all we are. It's not all we can be."

She raised her head and looked off in the distance, not at him but through him. "I believe you," she whispered more to herself than to him.

"Because it makes sense?" he asked tenderly.

"No," she mused, "it makes no sense at all. But I still believe you," she smiled up at him. "Don't ask me why I can't explain it."

"I think there's a rule – only one why question a day," he teased, "Unless you're a kid." Then his Freudian slip let him continue down a road they weren't ready for yet, but he often thought about. "And it'll be a few years before we'll have to answer those," he realized his error and smiled as though his comment were a joke, but her look told him she knew it wasn't, but she said nothing.

It was intriguing. His mind detoured with the issue and it's ramifications. Dani Reese of a year ago said she and kids were not a good idea. But Dani Reese of four minutes ago let him reference their future kids and did not object.

"Crews?" she called him back from his reverie of little brown haired girls giggling in his house and yard. "You here?" He nodded and voiced a silent "yep."

"Liar," she chastised lightly. "You were a million miles away in that future you don't believe in," she told his secret.

He held her eyes to see if she looked away, she didn't.

"I want to believe in a future," he said strongly, "that has us together."

Her look softened and she considered him for a moment, again like she had when they were first partners. "You know you're crazy right?"

He smiled and her mirroring smile let him know she was letting him off easy. One difficult question a day was enough. Their future kid's names would have to wait for another day.

"Hey, do you think we could get a dog?" he changed the subject. "I'd like to have a dog. You like dogs right?" He continued to talk animatedly about their future dog as she led him by the hand back to the car, nodding and agreeing with things she had intention of doing.


	7. Chapter 7

**Reasons to Say Yes**

 **CHAPTER SEVEN**

They next day saw a call she knew would come and was dreading. She'd been gone now nearly three weeks and was out of sick leave, holidays, personal time, vacation and favors. It was go back to work or lose her job. She closed the phone and turned to find him looking at her quizzically.

"I have to go," she told him.

"You want to go," he countered.

This surprised her, but it wasn't untrue. She was antsy and they'd worked apart before, but this was different. It felt as if she was leaving him. "I..." she began and then clamped her mouth shut with no idea of what to say. This was typically the point in relationships where she punched out, when men began making demands on her. But then she considered, he hadn't asked her not to go.

He wasn't demanding anything – he was merely making an observation – no judgment followed. He gazed at her with his expression neutral and a hint of smile lurking in the corner of those eternally chapped lips she loved kissing.

"I do," she confessed. "You are fine here and I'm…"

"Bored…restless….unchallenged," he offered. They all seemed uncomplimentary and her wrinkled nose showed her disdain for such terms. "Honey, I'm not upset, I thought you'd go back sooner. It can't be much fun to babysit me all day. I can't even do card tricks, I don't own a television and you need to be challenged," he explained that he understood.

"Then why doesn't it feel like I'm betraying you?" She walked to within inches of him. "Can you tell me that?"

"I will be here when you get done – waiting," he lowered his tone and his eyes to her lips. "If I can have you in my arms at night then I'm not worried you're going to run off with Stark during the day," he smiled slyly.

"I'm not going to partner with Stark," she laughed. "I better not be partnered with Stark," she added under her breath. "What are you going to do until they clear you to return?" her curiosity was honest and pure.

"I have a few side projects I'd like to pursue," he teased touching her lips lightly.

"Another Zen garden?" she linked fingers with both his hands and stepped under his chin, deeply into his personal space while flirting shamelessly with him.

"No," he answered simply lowering his lips to hers. His kiss was light and dreamy. The doctor had not yet cleared him for more heated encounters so they tried to keep things from blazing out of control by restraining themselves but it was a challenge.

"What then?" she eyed him skeptically.

"Well, there's the identity of the Group; finding out who framed me and a few other things I've always wanted to know – like did Oswald act alone? Was the lunar landing really faked?" he teased.

"Charlie," she said sternly, "I want your word you won't go after them alone." Her eyes held his until she'd wrung a promise from him that he'd stay put and run anything he developed past her first.

He held up his fingers and gave the "scout's honor" pledge.

She grabbed her keys, badge and gun and was out the door telling him as she left, "and I'm taking the car so you won't be tempted," smiling cheekily.

"That's not why you're taking that car," he shouted. "I'm buying you your own car for Christmas," he threatened as the door shut.

"I might forget how to drive by the time I get behind the wheel again," he commented to himself. He opened the paper to the classified and began hunting for something he his heart set on.

She got about halfway there before his caller id showed on her phone, "miss me already?" she was in a rare glorious good mood.

"Would you rather get married at the beach or in the mountains?" he asked and her mouth went dry. "Dani? You there?"

She stuttered, "uh…yeah," and then asked in a pinched tone, "do we have to talk about this now?"

His smile was apparent in his reply, "I'll could surprise you."

For the next four minutes straight he extolled the virtues of the mountains in Reno, before switching to the laidback charm of an island retreat. She swore he didn't take a breath and she certainly couldn't get a word in edgewise.

Charlie," she waited until he wound down and then asked again, "Charlie?"

"Uh-huh," he said just as he bit into a piece of fruit.

"Could we table this discussion for later?" There was a pausing during which she just knew he was chewing, "and I'd appreciate it if you didn't eat fruit while we are talking on the phone."

She heard him swallow hard and replied a meek, "yeah, sure." She felt victory was at hand and he was letting it go. Maybe he'd realize her fear caused her to move faster than she was ready to and he'd ease up.

But he must have heard the relief in her coming through the phone line because his cheeky comment before he ended the call was made with laughter in his voice, enough to get her blood boiling. "Don't think I've forgotten your promise, it's one I intend to hold you to." The empty air let her know he was gone and probably up to no good.

 _Damn him_ , she though he was serious about this and not giving up on the idea. And…she realized she had yet to tell her mother…about the fact she was in love with Crews and that she'd agreed in principal to the idea of marrying the crazy redhead.


End file.
